


SPORES

by darkprinceofirkalla



Series: Purple [5]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Awkward Sexual Situations, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, M/M, Mild Language, Monster of the Week, Sex Talk, Superheroes, Teen Angst, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-06-24 10:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15628854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkprinceofirkalla/pseuds/darkprinceofirkalla
Summary: Billy and Kimberly encounter a toad-like monster that sprays them with spores that begin to affect their behavior in strange ways.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In celebration of the possibility of a sequel, I decided to write a new fic. Yes, this one is my interpretation of Power Ranger Punks. Yes, I'm excited too.

Things since the attack had been strange in Angel Grove to say the least. Pig monsters, weather witches, and just an eerie feeling around the downtown area had started to plague the town. It was like on one of those monster-of-the-week tv shows and the thrall of the Zeo Crystal was making Angel Grove appealing real estate to unnatural creatures. Luckily, the town rested easy knowing they had a colorful gang of protectors. 

But for the protectors, they were always on alert. Still, things had been quiet the last few weeks since Homecoming. Everyone was officially out, officially dating their partners. Zack was still somewhat of a lothario, but that just became an amusing character trait. At least the rangers had busted down the wall normalcy at Angel Grove High. Nobody cared if people were in queer relationships anymore. 

But normal or not, Billy was still getting used to the whole ‘relationship’ aspect of it all. He enjoyed calling Jason his boyfriend. He enjoyed making out. But every time something got heavy between them, he stuttered and made an excuse about homework and they stopped. It’s not that he didn’t _want_ to go to the next step, he was just scared. What if he wasn’t good? What if, and this is very unlikely, but what if once it happened Jason dumped him? What if he said something incredibly stupid that made Jason look at him in a different way? There were a ton of things that ran through his mind, and they were probably all just his mind sabotaging him as it always did. Billy was often stuck in his own head with these things. 

He walked alone from school. He stayed late working on a science project. He had to be supervised by a teacher because Billy had a habit of creating things that blew up. That’s why he had Saturday detention until he graduated. But he genuinely enjoyed inventing things. It was pretty much common knowledge that eventually he’d have a career in a STEM field, he just wasn’t sure what yet. There were so many exciting avenues to explore, especially now that he knew there was the potential to work with alien technology. He tended to gush too much about these things and end up leaving his friends staring blankly at him. But no matter, sometimes the most exciting conversations held were with himself. In fact he was so lost in thought that he almost didn’t hear his name being called out from behind him.

“Hey stranger!” A soft, feminine voice rung out from his side. He finally snapped back to reality and saw Kimberly Hart staring back at him, clutching the straps of her backpack as she fell into step with him.

“I was just studying at that new juice place and saw you walking. Figured I needed to head home myself.” She said with a radiant smile. Billy nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. 

“Have you and Trini had sex yet?” He said bluntly. Billy didn’t know how to properly transition into discussions. It was part of his charm. His bluntness that came out of left field. Kimberly went wide eyed and blushed.

“Uh… wow Bill, straight into the hard hitting questions. Really my head is spinning.” She chuckled.

“Um… we’ve dabbled.” She nodded, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s a very weird question by the way. Why you ask?” 

Billy shrugged, answering quickly. He was never one to waste time.

“Jason and I haven’t. I always make up an excuse when we start heading there. I just thought I’d ask to see if I was doing something wrong.” He said, a genuine tone of confusion in his voice as he did. Kimberly just gave a little half smile and bumped him with her shoulder, to which he gave his signature confused look. 

“You’re not ready. That’s okay. Jason’s a cool guy. I think he gets it.”

“It’s just…” Billy started. But they heard a loud crash and what seemed to be a muffled scream coming from an alleyway to their right. Suddenly they shifted into ranger mode and headed toward the danger.

“I don’t see…” Billy said before he was interrupted by a gross squelching sound. The two peered into the dark end of the alley to see a large misshapen mass, shaking and convulsing as it made gross swallowing sounds. Upon closer inspection they could see a hand, a _human_ hand, disappearing into its large mouth. 

The two posed, starting to morph, but they startled the gross creature, who had just finished its meal. And when it saw them, it stretched back its gelatinous head and wailed before jumping toward them. It screeched, knocking them back with what looked like spores shooting from glands on its back. They coughed, inhaling whatever it was, before hitting the ground and gagging. The creature hopped inhumanely over the building before disappearing into the night.

“Am I crazy or did we just see a giant frog eat someone?” Kimberly said between wheezing on whatever they’d inhaled. Billy pulled himself up after leveraging his arm on a dumpster and nodded.

“Looked like a toad more specifically. We need to tell Zordon.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy and Kimberly are... acting strange.

Colt Wallace was a deeply unhappy person. His parents never paid attention to him, his mother was always at work at the diner and his father was always too uh… drunk to really even remember he was alive. It made him angry, deeply and irrationally and _often_. It was the whole reason why he was always in trouble, why he had detention from now until the end of time. It was why he preyed on the weak. Because if people feared him, they at least noticed him, and he didn’t have the talent or skills to make his name elsewhere. 

Up until a couple of months ago, Billy Cranston was his target of choice. It was so easy to pick on him. He was just so… _slow_. But one day, it seemed like something changed within the boy, and he was literally made out of steel or something. He couldn’t break his arm. He damn near got a concussion trying to headbutt him. Overall, Billy changed, and he just could no longer be a target anymore. That… sucked. But it held the exciting new prospect of choosing a new victim, which he did with glee. 

And that’s how Raymond Powers ended up being tormented every day for the last several weeks. Colt usually waited until Jason Scott wasn’t around, because honestly he was intimidated by him, and of course now that he knew Billy was freakishly strong he stayed away from him as well. But once the halls were clear, Raymond was dead meat. 

He grabbed him from behind and put him in a chokehold, watching with insane delight as his veins popped from his forehead and his face turned red. 

“I just want to know how long it takes for me to put someone to sleep. You’re helping me with research really.” He laughed, squeezing him tighter like a python wrapping up its next meal. 

But before he knew it, he was slamming into the lockers behind him. He yelped, in much more pain than he’d like to be. And when he opened his eyes he saw a motley duo looking at him.

“Hey jerk, what’s your problem?” said Kimberly Hart, leaning against the locker across from him. Though she looked… different. Way hot. Not that she wasn’t before. But she was wearing torn up fishnets and a shirt that showed off her midriff with spiky black boots and all dark makeup. She was filing her nails and didn’t seem to be too into him. The one that _really_ spooked him was Billy Cranston, who appeared… well… kind of the same as always. Except for his demeanor. His eyes were colder, more focused. You’d think for someone on the spectrum they couldn’t laser focus on someone so… intently. Violently. But Billy did. He leaned down and fondled the hanging blue safety pins attached to the pocket of Colt’s homemade black torn vest and gave a half smirk.

“I like blue.” He said. And the next thing he knew, Billy was tearing the vest from his body and putting it on himself. He didn’t say another word. Him and Kimberly just sort of… fell into eerie step with each other. It was like one of those old teen horror movies from the 90’s where they had been taken over by something that was not themselves. Raymond looked up at them as they walked past and offered a shaky “T-thank you…” which they smirked and promptly ignored. Did they save him because Colt was being a jerk? Or did… Billy just want to steal his vest?”

*** * ***

“Hey! Mister sometimes showed up for class!” Trini ribbed Zack as he moved to the seat next to her. He just offered one of his trademark cheeky smiles and gave a knowing shrug.

“Promised my moms I’d do better for her. No big.” He said, sitting down and laying his chin on his crossed arms while he looked back at the little one. Trini picked up her phone and checked her messages again. Still nothing. This was quite unusual. Zack, ever the perceptive one (and mostly since out of the whole gang he had become the closest thing to a brother to her), picked up on her frustration and gave her a quirked eyebrow. 

“Everything good, little one?” He asked in sincerity. She popped her tongue and put down her phone.

“Kim hasn’t texted me back since she went to that juice bar downtown last night. Didn’t see her at her locker either. I’m just starting to get uneasy is all.” Trini said. She then picked up her phone again and stared at it as if that would make a new text roll in. 

“Don’t fret. She’s probably just… uh… right here.” Zack said, looking up wide eyed as Kim approached. 

“Hey girl. You uh… you lookin’ pretty fine today.” Zack smirked, ever the flirt. Trini scowled at him before she turned and got a pretty good look at her girlfriend. Suddenly she couldn’t speak because… well, Kimberly’s tongue was in her mouth. A couple of boys in the room wolf whistled and cat called. Kimberly turned and grinned. She was loving the attention.

“Whoa whoa uh… did you get bitten by Tawny Kitaen or something?” Trini said in reference to old rock and roll music videos as she was want to do, genuinely baffled by her girlfriend’s sudden turn to the dark side. And YET, still excited by it. Kimberly proceeded to eat a piece of bubblegum, blowing a bubble slowly and… can blowing a bubble be sexy? Because it was sexy. Trini was suddenly not so worried anymore. Just excited a little too much.

“KIMBERLY HART!” A voice came from the front of the room. A frumpy older woman had a stern look on her face. Kimberly turned and leaned against the desk like a slinky cat.

“Can I help you, Ms. Appleby?” She grinned, batting her eyelashes. The woman was unamused.

“Kimberly, you’re usually such a model student but you’re breaking _several_ dress code rules right now. Also you’re not even in this class this period!”

“What can I say? Algebra makes me horny.” Kimberly snickered. Ms. Appleby went wide eyed in horror.

“YOU GO TO PRINCIPAL CAPLAN’S OFFICE YOUNG LADY!” She said, visibly flustered by Kimberly’s out of character overt sexuality. Kimberly just blew another bubble and smiled.

“I’ll bite… _this time_.” She smirked, standing before turning to give Trini a wink. 

“I’m taking you out tonight, baby.” She grinned, giving her finger guns, which should be a red flag. Kimberly always thought those were so tacky. As she left amidst a slew of more whistles from horny boys, Trini just stared at her both confused and incredibly excited.

“Dude when did Kimmie get so…” Zack started.

“Hot?” Trini said without a beat. 

“Tonight is going to be super fun.”

*** * ***

Jason was in the locker room changing for P.E. He couldn’t play football anymore because of his antics (and also because like… he’d _demolish_ everyone) and he had to continue on pretending he had issues with his leg so nobody would suspect he was a teenaged superhero, but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy gym class. He could still run. He could still lift. He’d have to fudge some things here and there to keep up the ruse but he didn’t care. Still he took his time changing and he was generally the last one out of the locker room, so it was no surprise he was alone. 

Or so he thought.

He closed his locker and jumped when a face was behind it.

“Fuck! Billy!” He smiled, then chuckled as he tossed his shirt into the locker.

“You scared the shit out of me… Hey, you have one of those ridiculously advanced science classes right now, don’t you? You’re… going to be super late. Doesn’t that like… send you into convulsions?” Jason joked. He knew how Billy liked punctuality. It wasn’t his style to be late, or skip even, yet here they were.

“I have something better in mind.” Billy gave a smile that was devilish and tickled Jason in a way that he wouldn’t say out loud. 

Then Billy shoved him against the locker and kissed his neck, his hand gripping his bulge through his gym shorts. Jason groaned for half a second and then stopped, pushing him off.

“Babe I… I mean I like uh… _this_ but you…” Jason was searching for the words to say. He really was denying sex to Billy, wasn’t he?

“You always get shy when we start getting really into things and now you’re trying to do me in the locker room before gym? I love you but… what’s going on?” Jason asked. He was always perceptive, especially when it came to Billy. Billy would _never_ do this normally. 

Billy looked at him with those same steely, cold, inhuman eyes that he did Colt earlier. He bared his teeth, then punched the locker next to Jason, a dent forming in the cold metal. He leaned in, lips hovering just over Jason’s. Jason’s breath hitched. He’d never seen this side of Billy, and while it turned him on just a little because it _was_ Billy, he knew something was really wrong now.

“Maybe I just want to live on the edge a little more, J.” He said. And like that, he was gone. He used his ranger speed a little too liberally. Anyone could have seen. Billy was always careful about exposing them. Jason just stared at the door that was left swinging, freaked out by the fact that something had gotten into Billy. Literally.

“I have GOT to warn the others.” He said to himself under his breath. Then he looked down at the stiff tent in his gym shorts and scrunched his nose.

“DAMMIT.” He growled. He’d have to wait to even go to P.E. until this uh… resolved itself.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and Zack head to the Command Center to tell Zordon of Billy and Kimberly's strange behavior, while Kimberly and Trini's date goes horribly wrong.

It was after school finally. Jason had been thinking about ‘the incident’ with Billy this morning, and while in a twisted way it was kind of hot, realistically he knew this wasn’t good. Billy wasn’t in his classes. He could only assume he’d skipped the rest of the day after not getting what he wanted out of Jason. 

He was headed to his truck when he’d intercepted Zack. Finally, someone he could tell. He tried texting Kimberly and Trini earlier but neither one of them were responding, and truth be told he didn’t know how to properly describe it through text. Maybe it was better in person anyway?

“Zack! Hey man don’t go yet.” He said, calling out to him, ushering him over to the truck. The tall, handsome Asian tugged his bag on his shoulder as he shifted direction toward him. 

“Hey have you seen Billy at all today?”

“Nah. Aren’t you guys connected at the hip these days? Or uh… _elsewhere_?” He teased. Jason just gave him a stern look followed by an eyeroll.

“No we haven’t done… you know what, that’s not the point. Something weird happened this morning.” He answered in an exasperated tone.

“He came in the locker room and he was super aggressive. He uh… _grabbed_ me. Know what I’m saying?” Jason added. Zack just mused and gave a shrug.

“Sounds to me like he’s ready for elsewhere after all.” He teased. Jason shook his head.

“No because… I know Billy. This was different. He wasn’t himself. And when I told him to hold off he got angry. Destroyed a locker and ran off. Used his powers in public.” Jason said, visibly worried. Zack clicked his tongue and thought back to his own morning.

“I mean… this might not be anything buuuut… Kim was acting a little different. Came into our first period class looking FIONE as hell. I mean… normally she’s hot but like… there was something different. Made out with Trini. Damn near made Ms. Appleby piss herself. She was aggressive too I guess.” He said. 

Jason furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the little watch Billy had given the five of them. He’d worked with Alpha to build them a teleportation device so that they didn’t have to constantly trek up the mountainside and jump into the water every time they wanted to go to the command center. 

“Maybe it’s nothing. But it might also be something and if there’s a chance I’m gonna check it out. We should go see Zordon.”

*** * ***

It would seem the quarry was the rangers go to spot. There was a nice little spot overlooking the town with a waterfall, and you could see the dig site not terribly far away. If the rangers had a watchtower, this would be it. But it also had its romantic qualities. At night, the sky was clearest up here. Jason took Billy here all the time, or so he told Kimberly. It was why even though she was under the influence of these strange spores causing her to act completely out of her Id, she still thought it would be the perfect spot for alone time with Trini. 

The two laid on their backs staring up at the sky. It was still mid-afternoon, the sky was blue. It was a surprisingly non overcast day in Angel Grove for once. Trini had been alone with her girlfriend many times before but this time it felt different. Kimmie felt… dangerous. In a fun way. In a _sexy_ way. It excited her and frightened her all at once. But Kimberly was just full of surprises. 

Suddenly Kimberly sat up, tugging off her jacket as she gazed down at the jagged rocks below. She smirked as she stood up, walking to the edge of the cliff. Trini didn’t think much of it at first. They had superpowers. They could take care of themselves. But she was sure they had limits that they’d not explored yet.

“You ever think about death now that we… you know… have a harder time dying?” Kimberly said in a strange voice, turning her body just slightly as she began to walk along the side of the cliff with her boots criss crossing in front of one another. Trini had to admit she was starting to get a little shaken.

“All the time. I mean… just because we cheated it once or twice don’t mean our card’s never gonna come up, Kimmie.” She said, slowly pulling herself to her feet. She too looked over the cliff face, seeing the jagged upward turned rocks below, gazing up at them like twisted knives waiting to claim a victim. 

“Look at them, Trini. Doesn’t it make you squirm? Thinking about what it would be like to fall on them? Your guts being ripped from your body as you’re impaled?” She said in almost a dark fashion. She turned, facing away from the edge of the cliff with her back to it, peering at Trini from the corner of her eye. 

“We’ve jumped from cliffs before. Into water. But I want to know just how invincible we are. I want to know if I’m a _god_. Because we can be gods, Trini. The only thing we lack…” She said, giving her a wink.

“...is a leap of faith.” She said, letting herself fall back. Trini screamed and in a flash, used the speed she was granted from the Morphing Grid to catch her and pull her back. The two fell back and rolled. Trini was panting, scared for Kim’s life. But Kim? She was cackling.

“Fuck! What a fucking rush!” She grinned wildly. Trini looked up at her, concerned and scared.

“What the FUCK, Kim?!” She screamed, holding back tears. Kim just gave a snarky little pout.

“Awww baby… I was just trying to get our adrenaline going. I mean… don’t ya feel all scared and… sexy now?” She smirked, kissing her softly. Trini relented once their lips touched, groaning as she felt Kimberly’s fingers trailing softly down her body. But before they could reach any fun destination, an unholy screech resonated through the air. The two looked up from where they lay and locked eyes with a large, ugly frog monster. Kim sneered, rolling to her feet.

“Well this fuck is even fuglier in the daylight.” She mused. And she was correct. The toad was about eight feet tall. Slimy as all hell. It was colored brightly, greens and yellows and reds, just like those cute but deadly frogs from the rainforests. But this one was not cute.

“You’ve seen this thing before?” Trini asked. Suddenly Kimberly remembered she never told anyone about it.

“Oops. Uh… I was gonna tell Zordon. I just forgot?” She smirked. Still, Kimberly ran carelessly at the creature, who hopped out of the way and snapped its whip-like tongue at her back, sending her flying against the rockwall.

“Kim! What the hell?! Uh… Morph?” Trini said, dodging a whip tongue attack of her own. She mumbled ‘It’s Morphin’ Time!’ under her breath and transformed mid-roll, and by the time she was one her feet, her energy daggers had manifested in her hands and she was slashing toward the frog. 

Trini got a few good slashes, the monster screaming and flailing as it tried to fight back. She smiled under her mask as she felt herself get the upper hand. But then, in jumps a STILL unmorphed Kimberly, punching and kicking.

“KIM. MORPH.” Trini shouted, not understanding why Kimberly was just so damn reckless today. She wasn’t even fighting with any sense of discipline, like all her training went out the window. She was just fighting like some punk. 

But the distraction of a reckless Kimberly was all the creature needed to get a one up on them again. It quickly knocked Kim back again, and its mouth suddenly opened impossibly wide. Suddenly the creature’s tongue whipped toward Kimberly with a purpose. 

It was going to _eat_ Kimberly.

Acting fast, because she was the only one morphed and figured her body could take more, Trini jumped in front of Kimberly. The creatures tongue found itself snaking around her instead, tightening like a python. Sparks started to shoot from her suit as it dragged her toward its mouth. Kimberly jumped up again, trying to pull Trini back, but the tongue was stronger. Suddenly, the monster had somehow swallowed her up.

“Trini!!!” Kimberly yelled, somehow experiencing a moment of lucidity. She was prepared to launch herself back into action, but the monster jumped over the cliff’s edge. Kimberly peered over in a panic, but there was nothing there. Just those same jagged rocks as before.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The spores leave Billy raging at a bar just out of town, so Jason steps in to calm him down.

Billy was a bad, bad boy. Normally, even before he got infected by the spores, he did some amusing yet questionable things. There was a reason he knew how to so easily disable Jason’s ankle bracelet. He’d made a convincing fake I.D. a while ago, it’s just that he was always so timid to use it. He was either scared he’d get caught or his too-good conscience got in the way. But now? Now he didn’t care. Now his morals were a little more warped. So it was the perfect time to try it out.

He sat alone at a bar called ‘Fat Willy’s’, nursing his fourth or fifth beer. He’d lost count. All he had to do was show the I.D. for a split second and no questions were asked. This didn’t seem like the type of bar that really cared one way or the other. 

It was also the type of bar that strangers weren’t treated too kindly. It was on an old country road somewhere between Angel Grove and Stone Canyon, and its patrons mostly consisted of bikers. 

“You don’t look like you belong too much round these parts.” A husky elderly voice came from behind him. Billy turned his head and quirked an eyebrow to the older portly man with a bandana on his head and a gross Z.Z. Top beard. He was flanked on either side by other decidedly white, tattooed men wearing rebel flags on their vests. Who even had rebel flags in California? These guys apparently. 

They were clearly trying to intimidate Billy. And normally they might. But this was a different Billy Cranston. This was Billy inebriated and hopped up on monster spores. So he turned on his bar stool, his legs widely stanced as he gave them an unimpressed look.

“I don’t. Your point?” He said, taking a long, slow, almost condescending swig from the beer bottle. The leader was clearly angered by it and doubled down on his intimidating voice.

“You should probably leave before there’re any problems…” He said, staring Billy down. But Billy Cranston could only laugh, finishing off his beer and cocking his head to the side.

“Free country.” He said, staring back with just as much vitriol. The older man nodded his head at his two friends, who moved to flank either side of Billy’s stool. They grabbed his arms and tried to lift, but found that they couldn’t. It was like the boy was made of steel.

“Aww, guys. You guys really shouldn’t touch me. I have a thing about that.” He said. They growled and both swung at him. He dodged easily, still sitting in his stool. One fist connected with the other’s face, while the one getting punched tried making contact with Billy’s only to have it stopped by Billy’s incredibly strong hand. Billy smirked.

*** * ***

“Oh he’s gonna murder those racist douchebags.” Zack laughed, watching the viewing globe. They’d _just_ finally tracked down Billy’s whereabouts. It had been chaotic this afternoon. Kimberly had teleported in, crazed and crying. She had to be restrained. The boys managed to get her in a cage, but all she could do was scream about the frog. After a while they had calmed her down, but she was still spouting more expletives than they’d ever heard in their lives.

After hearing her story about the night before, Zordon and Alpha were able to cross-reference their system to a species of toad creatures they’d encountered centuries ago on a planet called Sorcery 7. They were carnivores, yes, but they didn’t eat their prey by traditional means. They had an arsenal of natural techniques to lure unfortunate souls in. Their primary tool were spores they shot out of their body, infecting their targets minds and causing them to act reckless and irrationally, making them easier to capture. They stored prey in their mouths until they got to their lair, where they would use natural secretions to plaster them against the wall where they would lay comatose until the time came to feed. Of course they fed in cycles, once every 30 years over the course of a few days. Zordon wasn’t aware that any had made it to this planet, but the fact that there only was one was good news. A couple dozen completely destroyed Sorcery 7. 

Long story short, Trini was still alive. And if they wanted to snap Billy and Kimberly out of their crazed behavior they would need to snap the horn off of the toad’s back to create a serum out of it. It would seem getting _Billy_ would be the hard part right now.

“Aye-yi-yi… he’s really giving them hell.” Alpha said in his sarcastic robotic voice, watching almost as entertained as Zack.

“I suppose we could lock on to his signal and teleport him out of there before he hurts anyone too bad?”

“Are you kidding? We may as well just have him shout ‘Oh by the way I’m a Power Ranger’ to the rest of the bar. No I got this.” Jason said, moving over to his podium.

“Input the coordinates for behind the bar. I’ll get him out of there.” Jason nodded. Alpha moved over to the control panel and pressed a few buttons, then gave him a little salute. 

A small flash of red light circled his body. The next thing he knew he was landing on a bail of hay behind the old dive bar. 

He could hear the commotion from there. Shouting and shattering glass. He ran around front and into the door to see Billy pressing the old guy’s head against the bar, hissing at him.

“What you _will_ do is respect me!” He said. And a fair point was being made. As a person with dignity with a boyfriend of color that he deeply respected, he wanted to watch Billy wipe the floor with him a little more. But as a Power Ranger… he had to take the high road.

“Enough, Billy. Come on. Let’s go.” He said in a commanding tone. Billy turned his head, dropping the man before dusting off his new vest he stole from Colt earlier in the day.

“But I’m just starting to have fun, Jase. You want me to have fun, don’t you?” Billy said in the most confident, cocksure voice he’d ever heard come out of his mouth. Jason sighed, placing his hands on his hips and tapping his foot against the ground.

“I want you to have fun, just not… like _this_ , okay?”

“Then how? Certainly not by _fucking_ me. Am I not attractive to you no more, Jase?” Billy said defiantly. Jason pursed his lips, watching the rednecks and townies gasp, unsure what to do with the situation.

“Can we not do this here? We can talk at home.” Jason said, nodding toward the door. That’s when Billy got angry.

“No! FUCK YOU JASON!” He shouted angrily, tossing a bottle at his head which was quickly dodged. 

“Or rather don’t fuck you because I was READY AND WILLING AND YOU SAID NO! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS FOR ME TO BE THAT COMFORTABLE?!” Billy shouted once more. It was as if the spores were just inciting him to say just… whatever was on his mind. Jason was… flummoxed? Embarrassed? His face was turning as red as his ranger color. He nodded and walked toward him, grabbing his arm.

“Okay, come on Romeo, we’ll talk in the ca--” He started, but suddenly his arm was twisted behind his back.

“Bill, you don’t wanna do this.” He said. Billy just smirked.

“Do I?” He said almost flirtatious before tossing him forward. Suddenly Billy was launching an attack toward him, swinging his fists wildly. Again, fighting like some low level street punk. Jason was able to dodge each punch, and when Billy launched a kick at his chest, he caught it with his hands.

“Billy! Stop!” He yelled. Billy just smirked and used the leg Jason held to help propel his other leg forward and kicked him across the jaw. Jason flew back as Billy cracked his own neck from side to side. 

“You think I don’t know?! That all you other guys think I’m just some doe-eyed innocent child?! You don’t need to handle me with kids gloves! I’M GROWN!” He said, kicking him in the gut. He flew through the front door into the parking lot. Jason coughed a bit, looking up. Dammit. Still people watching. This would be easier if they weren’t. Alpha could port them both out. No such luck. 

“Billy, we don’t… we don’t think that.” He said, moving to his feet. Billy snapped the top off of a table and flung it out the door like a frisbee toward him, to which he ducked under, hearing it lodge itself into the car behind him. Okay. Billy was causing more than a scene now. People were gonna question just how strong he really was. 

“You laugh at my voice! You get irritated when I have to rearrange everything on my desk when you know I can’t concentrate if I don’t!” He said, running out, tossing a punch at him and getting his fist lodged in a truck door when Jason sidestepped it.

“And why won’t you FUCK me?!” 

Jason was pinned between him and the truck, his boyfriend’s fist stuck in the metal lining. He just reacted, shaking his head.

“I’M A VIRGIN, OKAY?!” Jason shouted. He wasn’t sure why he was even defending himself. Billy was the one that would panic and talk about homework. Everyone just assumed that Jason was some big bad lothario, that he’d had ALL the sex. But honestly, he never really made time for it with football. And now being a ranger. Made out a few times before Billy, yeah but… never all the way. Still, that revelation made Billy pause, looking at him confused for a moment. He then looked at his fist that was rammed in the metal siding of a truck and hissed to himself.

“Ouch.” He said. He looked at Jason almost apologetically.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I was angry and then… I just saw… I don’t know what I saw. I just wanted to break stuff.”

“It’s okay, Billy.” He said with a smile. Then he carefully helped him remove his hand, which was bloody and cut up. Everyone was still watching from the bar. Jason just smiled and waved, unsure of what else to do.

“Uh… all good, folks! We’re leaving! Sorry! We uh… won’t come back! Promise!” He said, waving them off before ushering Billy beyond the treeline so they could teleport back to the command center.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Jason is tracking down Billy, the toad monster attacks a local farm and Zack answers the call.

As entertaining as the situation unfolding all was, not moments after Jason went to retrieve Billy from straight up murdering a whole bar of hillbillies, Alpha picked up reports from the local police radio that a large toad-like creature was seen terrorizing a farm close to the trailer park. When Zack heard that, he immediately perked up. His mother was at home and her health was not strong enough to handle being startled by a giant monster in their yard. Or worse. Alpha tried to stop him, but Zack was the only available ranger lucid enough to make a dent. So he ignored Alpha’s pleas to wait for Jason’s return and teleported out.

He was suited up, his axe at the ready as he entered an old barn not even a mile down the dirt road that led to his home. He scanned the ground for any evidence, and found nothing but a bunch of feathers littering the ground. A chicken jumped out of its hiding place, startling him and knocking him back just a little bit. Other than that easily frightened poultry, there was nothing of note.

That is until he made it around back. There was a trail of what looked to be slime heading from a window of the second story of the barn headed into the woods. The trail seemed to be headed off rather than coming in. And it was in the direction he feared. Toward the trailers. 

“Mom…” He said, huffing it as he began to run into the woods. He followed the trail as far as he could, but oddly enough, it stopped at the other end of the woods, right at the treeline of the far edge of the trailer park. He looked around, trying to see where a creature that size could possibly have gotten off to, but all he was met with was silence. 

He stood, facing away from the trailers in case anyone was watching, and tapped the side of his helmet so that it opened up and he could see with his own two eyes rather than just through the visor. 

“Alpha?” He said, activating the communicator. 

“Do you have any of those like… sci fi scan thingies you can do?” He asked. Alpha’s surprisingly sarcastic voice came through his earpiece with his response.

“Do you mean a heat signature?” The robot responded in kind, having already started a scan of the area. Zack just sat down and waited, whistling while he skipped rocks across the dirt floor of the woods. 

After a few moments, red and blue lights swirled behind the android while he worked on his computer. Billy started to slouch, somehow feeling a little winded by the journey. 

“I’m fine!” He said defiantly, shrugging off Jason despite coming to an understanding with him just moments before. Jason held his hands up and backed away as Billy sat back on one of the rising platforms of the command center and moved to see what Alpha was doing.

“Where’s Zack?”

“Right here, buddy.” He responded through the viewing screen displaying his vitals. 

“That Terror Toad attacked a farm while you boys were out.” Alpha nodded his little chrome dome as his conical fingers typed at the strange alien buttons.

“I’m doing a heat scan of the woods to see if I can pick it up.” 

Jason pursed his lips as he looked over the screen, watching it zoom out to a general map of the area. There was a black dot where Zack was. No yellow for Trini. Whatever goop that frog had her in must be jamming the signal. Slowly, small red dots began to heat up all over the map, showing small patches of wildlife. Nothing too big. Likely deer or foxes. Maybe even a bear. 

“There’s so many animals out there, how will we know the right one?” Jason asked. Alpha gave a little laugh and nodded his cylindrical head once more.

“Ooooh boy. You’ll know.” 

“Amphibians are cold-blooded, dumbass. If it shows up it’ll be a massive cold spot. God.” Billy hissed from where he sat. Good to know that even with the bad attitude, he was still the smartest person in the room. 

“Ding ding ding!” Alpha agreed. Still as they watched the map, nothing was happening. 

“Can I go now? I’m so booooored.” Kim’s voice rang out from the cage in the background.

“And why does he get to be out there?”

Jason was going to respond but then Billy slouched over. When he looked up Kim also was looking a little pale.

“These spores… they don’t just affect their behavior do they?” Jason asked, looking up at the moving wall. Zordon materialized and assessed his rangers, a stern look on that giant face.

“It’s also a slow acting poison. I did not tell you initially because panicking could cause it to react faster. I’ve seen it take a few days but from what Kimberly said they received a pretty large dose.”

Jason was suddenly annoyed, but all his focus was on Billy at this moment. He was about tired of Zordon keeping secrets. They had been rangers for a few months now and he still felt like he hadn’t earned his trust. They would have a talk. But later. There were more important things now.  
“Let’s find this damn frog.” He said, turning back to the screen, taking a more proactive approach and activating the touch screen himself. He moved the screen about a few more times, but still nothing was coming up. 

“Dammit!” He shouted, gripping fistfuls of his hair. 

As soon as he turned away, a small beeping started on the screen. Suddenly the area on the map immediately behind Zack was turning blue. It was fast and it was _large_.

“Zack turn around!” Jason shouted. Zack could only hear garbled noise. 

“What?” He said, standing up and holding his fingers to his ears to see if that made a difference in the sound quality.

“The toad! It’s there!” He shouted. Still, all Zack heard was feedback. That was when the shadow grew over him. He turned around, looking straight into the serrated jaws of the terrifying gelatinous creature.

Then the line went dead.

Jason’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t even give Alpha or Zordon a heads up. In a flash of red light, he faded away. Jason was gonna get that damn horn and save his friends. All of them. With or without Zordon’s approval.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Zack is attacked by the Terror Toad and hope is dwindling for a poisoned Billy and Kimberly, Jason takes it upon himself to go after the creature. Alone.

A red column of light appeared and quickly faded around the silhouette of an armored figure in the middle of the forest. The sky was starting to tint and orangey purple as the sun slowly started to set. If Jason wanted to find Zack and the toad, he had to act fast because he was losing light. They had ways of illuminating the woods, but it wouldn’t be easier. 

“Are you crazy, Jason? I’d just like to point out that this plan of yours is very very bad.” The sarcastic android balked in his communicator. Jason didn’t listen. He just stared around the treeline to see if he could locate Zack’s last location. He recognized the small rock formation where he sat from the small bit of visuals they were able to obtain from the viewing globe and figured he’d start there. As he approached, he crouched to see a small pool of sticky saliva and obvious signs of a struggle. 

It had gotten Zack. 

“Alpha. Are those little ray gun thingies you were working on ready?” He asked, never taking his focus off of the woods around him. He quickly got his answer from a bemused Alpha 5.

“Once again they are not _’ray gun thingies’_ , they have a name. They’re Blade Blasters. It’s a _cool_ name.” He said, typing a few coordinates onto the compute.

“At least I think so…” He whispered to himself as the gun beamed into place on an attachment on Jason’s thigh. He pulled it out and tapped the side of his helmet.

“Thanks for the upgrade.” He said, readying the gun as he surveyed the ever darkening woods around him. The harder he looked the more things looked hopeless. 

“Are you getting anything on the heat scan?” He muttered over the communicator. Alpha was quick to respond back.

“Nothing yet. But it’s probable the toad has some way manipulating its body temperature as a cloaking mechanism. You saw how fast it came up on Zack. Be on the lookout.”

“Helpful. Thanks.” He responded in an almost annoyed tone. He really shouldn’t be upset at Alpha, he was doing all he could. He was just so damn pissed that Zordon lied to him, at least by omission. Wouldn’t it have been nice to know his boyfriend was poisoned this whole time? It had been months and Zordon still didn’t completely trust him as a leader. What did he have to do to earn that damn space wizard’s respect?

After walking for what seemed like an hour, he’d reached the edge of the woods, past the trailer park. The treeline let out at an old abandoned motel, complete with a pool that was teeming with dirty water that seemed to have some sort of greens growing in it. And now the sun had completely set, and with no lights at this eerie old motel everything was illuminated by the blue lights on the piping of his suit.   
“LOOK OUT!”

It took him by surprise. Lucky for him he had that whole superhero reaction time thing. He ducked and a large energy blast zoomed over his shoulders. He could feel the heat from it warm up the armor of his shoulder. An old poolside chair exploded into shrapnel as a loud screech resonated through the air and a large splash sent a torrent of dirty water into his thankfully covered face.

“Surprise, bitch.” Zack grinned, holding his axe backward, utilizing its cannon form. How badass. Jason’s sword was just… a sword. 

“I thought you were toad soup.” Jason said, standing. Zack chuckled and shook his head.

“Ye of little faith, bro.” He said, tapping his shoulder with his gloved hand. But their victory would be short lived because just like a horror movie villain, the toad shot out of the water in a furious scream, pouncing on Jason, its gaping maw a gnashing flurry of teeth and slime. Jason was able to hold it back with a strong arm, but it was such a struggle. That’s when he saw it. The horn.

“I got you, homie.” Zack said, aiming his cannon again. Jason shouted for a moment.

“No! The horn! Get it! Don’t blow it up!” He commanded, holding the creature at bay.

“Like now would be good!” Jason hissed as he kept those snapping jaws away from him. The creature was so enraptured in trying to devour Jason that it had completely dismissed Zack’s presence, making it easy for him to swing his axe like a bat and slice the horn off with the blade. 

The creature reeled back and screamed, giving Jason just enough room to hit a button on his gun with his thumb, the weapon snapping into a bladed form before he jammed it into the creatures gut and causing even more shrieking as it stumbled back. It looked at the two once more with tempestuous hiss before leaping an impossible distance and disappearing again.

Jason looked down at his new dagger and smirked.

“Blade Blaster, eh? I get it. Pretty cool, Alpha.”

Zack was tossing the disembodied horn up and down in his palm, his face now in full view as his visor was pulled back. 

“One problem solved. Now we just gotta find little one.” He nodded, referring to Trini. They just had to find the lair. 

“One thing at a time. We have to get this to Alpha so he can make a serum. Otherwise we lose Kim and Billy too. For good.” He said. Zack tossed him the horn and he tapped his communicator.

“Alpha we got the horn. You can port us back now.” He said. He looked over at Zack with a smile, shaking his hand and giving him their ‘bro’ hug. Once he stepped back, the red light started to swirl around him.

“Good work…” He said, turning over to Zack. That was when he saw it. The tongue wrapped around Zack’s middle. Zack was pulled from the black and silver lights that had begun to swirl around him as well and disappeared into the open mouth behind him. But before Jason could scream for him, the scenery changed into the Command Center.

He’d made it. Zack had not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hey. This chapter is about three months late after writing the first six in the course of a few weeks. It's due to a few reasons. One, I might be going back to school so I'm arranging some things IRL. And two, I'm focusing a lot more on my visual art and honing my skills, which I would love for you to see! You can find it on Tumblr or Instagram at solsethegreat, just like here! In any case, we're coming close to the end, hopefully just maybe 2-3 more chapters and we can close this story out!


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